“Every living thing is, from the cosmic perspective, incredibly lucky simply to be alive. Most, 90 percent and more, of all the organisms that have ever lived have died without viable offspring, but not a single one of your ancestors, going back to the dawn of life on Earth, suffered that normal misfortune. You spring from an unbroken line of winners.” LifeEarthLinesAlivePerspectiveLuckyNormalSpringPercentDiedWinnerDawnMisfortunesCosmicAncestorOrganismsLiving ThingsOffspringUnbroken Author:Daniel Dennett
“There are millions of different species of animals and plants on earth--possibly as many as forty million. But somewhere between five and fifty BILLION species have existed at one time or another. Thus, only about one in a thousand species is still alive--a truly lousy survival record: 99.9 percent failure!” StillsDifferentEarthAnimalMillionsRecordsFiveAliveThousandSurvivalPercentPlantSpeciesBillionsFiftyFortyOne Time Author:David M. Raup
“Has it ever occurred to you how lucky you are to be alive? More than 99 percent of all the creatures that have ever lived have died without progeny, but not a single one of your ancestors falls into that group! ... Not a single one of your ancestors, all the way back to the bacteria, succumbed to predation before reproducing, or lost out in the competition for a mate.” WayFallLostAliveGroupsAtheismLuckyCreaturesPercentDiedCompetitionPositive AtheismMatesAncestorBacteriaLucky YouProgenyReproducing Author:Daniel Dennett
“An asteroid can literally destroy 80 or 90 percent of the species that are alive on Earth. These are big events. I mean, this is called extinction.” MeanBigsEarthAliveEventsPercentSpeciesExtinctionAsteroidsBig Events Author:Rusty Schweickart
“There's nobody in the world that wouldn't change places with the Americans. The economy is phenomenally large, the entrepreneurial class is very alive and very well, the universities, despite budget problems, still turn out something like 90 percent of the refereed academic and technical articles in the world. There's a lot on everybody's agenda.” WorldWellsStillsProblemTurnsClassEconomyAlivePercentUniversityDespiteBudgetsAgendasArticlesAcademicEntrepreneurial Author:Tom Peters
“Less than 1 percent of the patients treated are alive at the end of five years.” YearsEndsFiveAlivePercentPatientTreatedFive Years Author:Michael Landon
“Romance is alive and well in America, but the 50 percent who can't make it work fail because of selfishness. It gets down to that. You can't oversimplify it because every situation is so complex.” WellsAmericaRomanceSituationAliveFailingPercentComplexesSelfishness Author:Donny Osmond
“..this is just like life must be for about 99 percent of the people in the world. You're in this place. There's other people all around you, but they don't understand you and you don't understand them, but people do a lot of pointless babbling anyway. In order to stay alive, you have to spend all day every day doing stupid meaningless work. And the only way to get out of it is to quit, cut loose, take a flyer, and go off into the wicked world, where you will be swallowed up and never heard from again.” PeopleWorldWayOrderCuttingAliveHeardStupidPercentQuittingWickedMeaninglessPointlessStaying AliveBabblingFlyersWicked World Author:Neal Stephenson
“I am neither Christian enough nor charitable enough to like anybody just because he is alive and breathing. I want people to interest or amuse me. I want them fascinating and witty or so dul as to be different. I want them either intellectually stimulating or wonderfully corny; perfectly charming or hundred percent stinker. I like my chosen companions to be distinguishable from the undulating masses and I don't care how.” PeopleWantDifferentEnoughCareChristianInterestAliveMassPercentHundredWittyDon't CareChosenBreathingI Don't CareFascinatingCompanionCharmingCornyCharitable Author:Betty MacDonald
“I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say ‘I’m bored.” ThinkingWorldLifeInspirationalMindMeanFactsBigsFunnyUnderstandingInterestingLaughingForeverAliveAdvicePositive ThinkingGoes OnPercentWittyEndlessUselessBoredLive LifeBoredomBoresEnjoy LifeFunny InspirationalA Perfect WorldLife Is BeautifulI Love LifeBores YouBeing BoredI Am AliveAmazing LifeLife Is GreatUseless ThingsSo Bored Author:Louis C. K.